INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOWNLOADING, INSTALLING & CUSTOMIZING LATEX FOR WINDOWS There are dierent distributions of LateX for

Windows operating systems. Perhaps the most popular is MiKTeX . It has worked well for me in the past. A beginner-friendly version of MiKTeX is ProTeXt. The following steps will help you download, install, and customize it on your PC. Preparation: Make sure you have Acrobat Reader or Acrobat Pro installed on your computer. 1. Downloading & Installation of MiKTeX via proTeXT (1) On your PC, create a folder c:\protext\download . Create another folder c:\miktex , and a third folder c:\TexnicCenter . (2) Go to www.tug.org/protext . Click on download the self-extracting protext.exe le. (3) Click on the last item, protext.exe. Choose Save, and save the le to the c:\protext\download folder you created under (1). This may take a while (10 to 30 minutes, depending on download source and speed). IMPORTANT for correct extraction in Windows 7: If youre using Windows 7, you will need to select run in the bottom bar after the download has completed, then enter c:\protext as the destination folder for the extraction. Click extract. (4) Older versions of Windows: After the download is complete, go to your download folder and double-click on the protext icon. As destination folder, choose c:\protext , and click extract. (5) Go to your c:\protext folder and double-click on Setup (this should be the last item in that folder). This opens a small window. Next to MiKTeX, click Install. (6) Choose Open and Yes, if a security window pops up. (7) Check the accept conditions box. (8) If hard drive space is not an issue, select Complete MiKTeX, else select Basic MiKTeX. (9) Shared Installation: check anyone who uses this computer (10) IMPORTANT: For Installation Directory, choose c:\miktex, the second folder you created under (1). (11) Under Settings, select Letter for paper size, and Yes for Install missing packages on-the-y. Click next and Start - this may take a while. Close the Wizard.1 2. Downloading, Installing & Customizing TeXnicCenter (1) On your PC, create a folder c:\TeXnicCenter\download . (2) Go to http://www.texniccenter.org. In the top menu bar, click on the green Download button. This opens the download page. Click on TeXnicCenter 2 Beta 1 Installer, under the blue information bar. Chose the version that ts your operating system (32 bits or 64 bits). Wait a few seconds for the download to start.
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proTeXt also oers a second software package, TeXMakerX. If you wish, you can install it after installing MiKTeX. We will use TeXnicCenter instead.

(3) In Windows 7, the download bar at the bottom of the window will open. Click on the arrow next to Save, select Save as, and choose your c:\TexnicCenter \download folder as destination folder. If your rewall blocks the download (youll get a message in your installation bar), click Run. This will start the installation Wizard. (4) If you have a dierent operating system, the installation wizard should start automatically. (5) Follow the Installation Wizard, which should give you something like this: (6) Choose again Open and Yes, as needed. Click next in the Wizard window, the accept. (7) Check the accept conditions box. (8) IMPORTANT: For Installation Directory, choose c:\TexnicCenter, the third folder you created under (1). (9) Click next four times, then Install. This will be fast. Click Finish. (10) The conguration wizard will start. (11) Click next, then yes, congure TexnicCenter for the use with MiKTeX. (12) Under enter the full path of the postscript viewer to use, the folder where your version of Acrobat reader or Acrobat Professional resides should be automatically selected. If not, browse to it. Mine is at C:\Program Files(X86)\Adobe\Acrobat 10.0\Acrobat \Acrobat.exe. Click next, then nish. (13) You should see the main view of TexnicCenter. In the white window at the top, you should see LaTeX -> DVI . Change this to LaTeX->pdf. (14) Choose tools, options, then text format to choose font and font size, if you wish. (15) Choose view and select line numbers - this is useful to nd a given line if you get error messages. You may need to have a le open to select line numbers. (16) Do a test run. Download the le testscript.tex (posted on our course web site) to your latex folder. Open it in TexnicCenter. Click on build and view current le (icon in top menu with stack of paper and magnifying glass). You should see a urry of commands in TexnicCenters output window (at the bottom), and a new Adobe pdf le with the compiled text should open. If you get an error message, try closing all other open pdf les before trying again. Else try closing & re-opening TexnicCenter. If you still run into trouble, come see me. 3. Trouble shooting TexnicCenter if Acrobat doesnt open files (1) In TexnicCenter, Click on Build/Dene Output Proles. Click the Viewer card. (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) Under Server, type acroview , if youre using Acrobat Reader 9. If youre using Acrobat Reader 10, type instead acroviewR10 . If youre using Acrobat Pro 10 type instead acroviewA10 . If youre using Acrobat Reader 11, type instead acroviewR11 . If youre using Acrobat Pro 11 type instead acroviewA11 . 4. Customizing MiKTeX (1) Click on the Windows icon in the lower left corner of your screen, then All programs. Scroll down to MiKTeX 2.9. Click on it. Click on Maintenance(Admin). Then on PackageManager(Admin). A new window should open. (2) Click on Repository in the top menu. Select change package repository. (3) Select packages shall be installed from a directory, click next.

(4) Browse to c:\protext\MiKTex\tm\packages. click nish. You will see a synchronizing note. This may take a moment. (5) Close the package manager. Click on the Windows icon in the lower left corner of your screen, then All programs. Scroll down to MiKTeX 2.9. Click on it. Click on Maintenance(Admin). Then on Update(Admin). A new window should open. Select I want to get my updates from a local repository. The directory you specied in the previous step should already be selected by default. Click next. The program will search for updateable packages. If there are any, select them all and update. Most likely, you will receive a note saying There are currently no updates available. (If you receive an error message at this step, make sure your c:\protext folder is not Read Only. Go to windows explorer and right-click the c:\protext folder. Select properties, and the security tab. Click on edit and give full control to authorized users and admin for the folder and all sub-folders. Repeat for the c:\MiKTeX and c:\TexnicCenter folders. If you still get an error message when you are trying to update your packages, ignore it. You should already have the most updated version anyway.).